Chapter Text
I have no plans for Spring Break.
This isn't really unusual for me. Spring Break is meant to be relaxing. To me, it's defined by five days of lounging around in sweatpants, catching up on Criminal Minds, scrolling mindlessly through Twitter, and living on Hot Pockets and fast food. This is how it's been since I was admitted into Washington State University three years ago, and I've never really changed my plans.
Furthermore, I have no desire to go off to Florida or explore Seattle or drive down to California. I especially have no desire to go back to my sleepy hometown of Merom, Indiana; my mother is much happier with me out of the household.
All of my previous roommates have accepted or even encouraged this. Freshman year, Stacey Donovan and I watched two seasons of Grey's Anatomy in between shifts at the nearby grocery store. Sophomore year, I had my dorm to myself while Joanne Grey went to visit her parents in some tiny Oregon town I'd never even heard of.
Seth Clearwater, however, is the outlier. He is positively aghast at the idea that I am doing nothing for Spring Break. Appalled, even.
This is one of the major differences between us. Without a doubt, Seth is the most outgoing individual that I've ever met; he's the type of guy to ask total strangers how they're doing on the way to class, and then manage to befriend them within three minutes. I have never seen his social battery drained, and he always has some kind of plan in the works, whether it's to go to some party, meet a friend for coffee, or just hang out with someone. I, on the other hand, consider it an extroverted kind of day if I contribute to class even once and talk to anyone besides Seth, my boyfriend, Danny, and my best friend, Hannah.
Regardless. Seth is currently standing beside me in our shabby kitchen, looking at me with a look of incredulity on his face, with furrowed brow and puzzled eyes. We've been roommates since late August of 2011, yet he still doesn't quite understand my introversion sometimes.
"Well," he says, "Jared and Kim are getting married out on our Rez on Wednesday. Wanna come?"
I don't know who Jared and Kim are. Truth be told, I don't know a lot about Seth's life off-campus; what I do know are the absolute bare basics. I know that he has an older sister; I know that his father is dead; I know that his mother remarried a few years later to the Chief of Police of a little town nearby called Forks. I know that he grew up on the Quileute Reservation, a little ways from Forks. But just about anything else, he's kept under tight wraps.
Maybe his childhood was just really fucked up. I've got my fair share of trauma; I can't judge too much on that part.
"No, thanks," I say, taking a plate of pizza rolls out of the microwave before it goes off.
"There'll be plenty of free drinks," Seth continues, "And food."
I am never one to turn down free food or booze. During my first semester on campus, I spent more time figuring out which club and event had the most free food to offer than I did studying. In my defense, I'm a dual English-Comms major; I didn't care about the required science and math classes my advisor suggested I sign up for. Free food was vastly more interesting.
"You're awful, Seth Clearwater," I sigh, shaking my head. "Ruining my carefully laid out plans for Spring Break, just like that?"
He gives me a lopsided, childish grin. "You're just as awful, Judith Talbot."
I wince. "Nope, you're worse; you just used my birthname against me."
"It's your name!"
"And have you ever heard anyone in my life refer to me as anything but Jude?"
"Your boyfriend seems pretty fond of Judy-baby." At that, Seth snickers, and I feel my face flush a deep red. Danny Renfield is the absolute king of coming up with corny nicknames, and that is, unfortunately, the one he's decided to keep around the longest - despite my slightly-joking protests.
"Oh, fuck off," I say, unable to figure out a good comeback. It's times like these I wish that Seth would finally go and get a girlfriend; if he had one, I would be able to make fun of him just as relentlessly. However, he's absolutely dead-set against dating; he told me he believes wholeheartedly in 'love at first sight' and abides pretty strictly by that. He's such a hopeless romantic.
"Not until you agree to be my plus-one to the wedding," Seth says. "C'mon, Jude, I'd feel bad leaving you here all alone while I eat nice catering and drink the finest of champagne."
I hesitate before I respond, "What kind of catering?"
"Some sorta Mexican place. They make absolutely wicked nachos."
"Nachos? At a wedding?"
Seth shrugs. "Jared and our friends eat a lot. Easier to give them a dozen tacos each instead of getting fancy food."
I wouldn't be surprised at that if their friends are anything like Seth. I swear, he goes through five bags of Doritos in a week; I chalk it up to teenage boy metabolism that he has somehow kept a tight grip on. "I'm always down for Mexican."
"So you're coming?" Seth's face lights up.
"I don't think saying 'no' is really an option here," I say, smiling. "Sure, alright, I'll come."
In the days leading up to Wednesday, Seth is absolutely elated; the combination of dragging me out somewhere and the lack of coursework to be completed has amplified his spirits. Meanwhile, I had to struggle to find a decent enough outfit for a damn wedding. Seth promised that it was casual, so I'm going with black jeans and a button-down; I'd rather die than wear any sort of dress.
We have to leave super early in order to get to the Rez on time; Seth and I are in his car by four in the morning. For the first few hours, I am barely awake, much less able to hold a coherent conversation. Seth is perky and wide awake, as per usual, as if he's used to surviving on the bare minimum amount of sleep. He's a college student, though; I suppose he probably is. The sky slowly goes from pitch black, to deep blue, to the grey, cloudy landscape that literally everyone who lives in the Pacific Northwest is used to.
The ride up to the La Push reservation is fun; it'd be boring with anyone else. At Seth's behest, we blast Maroon 5; at mine, we play Taylor Swift. We bitch about the schoolwork we have that's due the day after Spring Break ends, and we complain about the professors we both have had. Seth jokes about the shitty drivers that we encounter along the way as the forest gets thicker and thicker around us.
"Well," Seth says after what feels like forever, "here we are."
I blink. "What d'you mean?"
"It's the Rez."
I don't see much of a difference on the roads. It still looks like a good chunk of the PNW; cold, grey-and-green, rainy. But I don't vocalize any of that. Instead, I say, "Oh, neato."
Seth nods eagerly. "It's home." In his voice, there's an undertone of...something. Homesickness, most likely. He doesn't tell me a lot about growing up, but he tells me about how much he loves the ocean, the beachy shores that line the east of the Reservation, how his friends would go cliff diving at times. "I missed it."
I wish I could relate; I'd rather be anywhere in the world than my hometown. But, still, I'm happy for him. Genuinely. His happiness is palpable as we continue to drive until we pull up to a white barn. There's not a lot of people here, yet; I suspect the bride and groom are getting ready elsewhere.
"A barn wedding?" I wrinkle my nose as we get out of the car.
Seth chuckles as he does the same. "I think it was Kim's idea."
If I ever looked at my boyfriend and told him I wanted a barn wedding, I think Danny would have a heart attack and then promptly breakup.
Before I can ponder what my boyfriend would do, though, several guys are already waiting for our arrival. They all look eerily similar, like they've all been cloned: a mass of tanned skin, short hair, and they're all at least a foot taller than me. Every single one of them looks to be absolute powerhouses; they ought to be drafted into football or professional wrestling.
"Jude! These're Jake, Sam, Quil, Embry, Collin, and Paul." Seth rattles their names off so fast that I can barely tell who is who, pointing at each one as he goes along. They all look just as awkward about the fact that I'm here as I am about being here; some of them give little half-waves as a greeting. The meanest one - Paul, maybe? - just stares at me as he folds his arms over his chest.
"You guys are late," the one with curly hair says. "Completely missed Jared trying to figure out what he's supposed to do with his hair. Everyone else's on their way now; we're just here to make sure no one else shows up. Y'know what I mean?"
Well, that sounds kind of ominous.
Seth grins sheepishly. "It was an eight-hour drive," he says. "And then we had to deal with an obnoxious amount of traffic."
"Why couldn't you have just stayed the night at your mom's?"
"I think she would've had an aneurysm if I brought a girl home! Especially Jude!"
There's an awkward moment of silence, one that seems way tenser than it has any right to be. "So," says the shortest of the bunch, "are you Seth's imprint, then?"
I blink. "What?" What the fuck does imprint mean? Maybe I misheard him; he did kind of mumble, after all.
Another one - I think it's Jake, he's the first one in the lineup - elbows the shortest. "He thinks you're Seth's girlfriend."
"Oh! Oh. No, I'm just his roommate, I have a boyfriend."
Seth's face flushes a deep red; I notice that he refuses to make eye contact. "C'mon, guys - oh! Hey! Leah! Leah!"
Standing farther away, near the entrance to the barn, is a woman. Seth jogs over to her, pulling her into a brief hug. Vaguely, I hear him saying, "No, she's not my girlfriend, she's just my roommate," as they walk back over to us. The boys snicker at that; one of them glances over at me, as if by merely looking at me, he's going to be able to prove or disprove that. Frankly, the thought of dating Seth kind of grosses me out - he's more like a brother to me than anything else.
"Jude! This is my sister, Leah! Leah, this is my roommate, Jude. Or Judith, if you really wanna piss her off."
Years from now, I will say this will be the moment that changes everything: Leah and I make eye contact.